


Madhouse

by shootingstarcipher



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Angst, Dark, Horror, Human Bill Cipher, M/M, Mystery, Romance, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-26
Updated: 2016-09-26
Packaged: 2018-08-17 11:18:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,713
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8141855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shootingstarcipher/pseuds/shootingstarcipher
Summary: Having been pit against those he loved the most, Dipper found himself contemplating whether surviving the nightmarish ordeal was really worth it. Mabel still managed to give him strength but only just, the knowledge that it could potentially boil down to the two of them being forced to fight against one another constantly lingering in the back of his mind. They didn’t have long to decide. Sooner or later, the bloodshed would have to start. The odd one out - the blond with one eye less than he should have had - said that the sooner it started, the better. It was kill or be killed, he told them, and that was all that mattered.





	

The light that invaded his vision as he blinked open his eyes proved to be too bright and it took him a while to adjust to his new surroundings. Nothing was familiar, he soon realised. He wasn’t where he was meant to be. Gone were the cobwebs and the dust that had covered everything in the attic room he and his twin sister were sharing for the summer and in their place was a clean, bright expanse of white. He wasn’t lying on a bed like he’d first thought, but a floor. A white, padded floor. The walls and ceiling were padded too, and the only part of the room that wasn’t was the large metal door that was staring him in the face.

For a moment or so, he lay there splayed out on the padded floor, unable to comprehend what was happening and barely able to move before it started coming back to him. He remembered being grabbed from behind whilst just outside the Mystery Shack and hitting his head on something, and then blacking out. There was nothing after that. Nothing but total blackness. And then he woke up here, with no idea of where he was or who he was with, and he still didn’t have the energy to move.

His initial thought was that, given all the padded surfaces (and despite the absence of any straitjackets), someone must have thought he’d gone mad. Only mad people ended up in padded cells. But he wasn’t mad. He was sane, and possibly one of the few sane people in Gravity Falls, so who would have branded him as deranged? And who, for that matter, would have had the power and authority to do so? He certainly didn’t recall being assessed by any mental health professionals, and surely only they were able to detain him if they thought he needed to be.

Either way, he knew for a fact he was mentally sound. He’d never heard things that weren’t there, seen things that didn’t exist, or experienced any delusions or confusion that would lead someone to believing he was anything but sane. Unless, of course, none of what he was experiencing now was real. Not a hallucination, but not real either. A dream. A nightmare. And he knew of only one being with the ability to create such a hellish fantasy.

If only he’d known then how wrong his assumptions were, that he’d later be proven mistaken and be forced to apologise to the one being he’d hate to have to show any sort of respect or sympathy to the most.

When the tall metal door in front of him opened with a clang, he hardly noticed it. He was still laying on the floor, trying to convince himself to wake up from his nightmare when it happened and - even after he’d sat up and noticed it, alerted to the sudden change in his environment by the sound of the door sliding open - he simply ignored it. If he didn’t interact with his environment - which he was considering his dreamscape - then he wouldn’t get drawn into it and it couldn’t hurt him.

Except that he didn’t wake up, even after a while, and nothing else happened until eventually his curiosity got the better of him and he forced himself to garner every ounce of strength he had left in his body and crawl over to the door, poking his head out and peering down the hallway which now confronted him. 

No more white, no more padded surfaces, but a long shadowy corridor of greyness. There was nothing across from the room he was in - just a blank wall of grey - and the tiled greyscale floor paved a path in both left and right directions from the doorway he was kneeling in. He glanced left and then right. He couldn’t see much in either direction - nothing but shadows. After a brief moment of hesitation, he crawled out into the corridor, flinched at the sudden coldness of the tiled floor, stood up and went left.

As he staggered down the hallway, he kept his hand pressed against the wall so that he never lost it when he wandered away from the light of the cell he’d woken up in and lost himself in the shadows.

By the time the shadows had engulfed him, he’d closed his eyes automatically out of fear. But when his hand - the one he ran along the wall as he walked - grazed against something that wasn’t the cold solid wall he’d grown accustomed to, he stopped and felt around for it. Whatever he was touching now was colder than the wall, and metallic. He squinted, struggling to get a better look at it, and then his hand collided with something even more surprising than the metal surface: something softer, warmer, and plastic. He pressed it just a little harder than he’d meant to and was suddenly almost blinded, a world of bright whiteness opening up in front of him.

It was familiar, the room before him being so much like the one he’d crawled out from that he wasn’t sure it was a different one. That is, of course, until he saw that someone else was inside it. Lying on the padded floor, with her back up against the wall behind her, was Mabel. Her eyes were closed, giving her the appearance that she was still asleep or had lost consciousness, and she looked peaceful. Her arms were raised above her head and her wrists were bound together with a thin - but presumably sturdy - metallic wiring.

Without hesitation - and forgetting for a moment that as far as he was concerned, none of this was real - he rushed over to her and untied the wire, letting her arms drop to her sides. He repeated her name over and over again, shaking her gently by the shoulders until she opened her eyes. She seemed dazed for a short while and struggled to understand where she was. She knew who he was immediately, however, and smiled when she saw him.

“Don’t worry,” Dipper assured her after she’d sat up straight and rubbed at her wrists, noticing the bright red marks on her skin. “I’m pretty sure this is just a dream - well, a nightmare,” he added, correcting himself. Mabel stopped rubbing at her wrists, stretched out, and then stood up. He stood up with her, having been crouched down on the floor while he tried to wake her up, and they both turned to face the doorway.

“Where are we?” she asked, tilting her head as she stared out into the darkened hallway before glancing back at her brother, confusion and fear in her eyes even though her lips were still curled up into her trademark smile.

“Honestly, I have no idea.” Her smile faltered slightly when he said that but she managed to force it to stay bright. They stood there in silence for a minute or so, taking it all in, and then she grabbed his hand and suggested that, even if it was just a dream, they searched the building they were in out of pure curiosity. He couldn’t have put it better himself and said so.

As they walked hand in hand down the hallway, each of them keeping their free hand on the wall closest to them, tracing it the entire way to the next door they came to (which, again, was on the side nearest to Dipper - on his left). He knew where the button was this time and pressed it the moment he realised they’d come to another door, the light that suddenly exploded from the padded cell they’d stumbled across now attracting his sister’s attention. This discovery wasn’t a surprise to him. What neither of them were prepared for, however, was who the metal door revealed as it slid across.

They didn’t understand at first. Just like the other two rooms which had previously been occupied by each of the twins, every surface of this cell was covered in padded white fabric, but a small portion of it - right beside the boy who was sitting upright and staring at them with a wide, manic grin - was splattered with a few droplets of crimson. Dipper blinked and then stared at the boy with his wrists tied together and Mabel’s smile disappeared from her face.

His single eye was just as golden as his long wavy hair and Dipper knew exactly what golden eyes meant, at least in his world. When he’d been foolish enough to make a deal with Bill Cipher and for that one day become the demon’s so called “puppet”, his own irises had temporarily turned to gold. And so, it made logical sense that the boy before him now, sitting with his legs pulled up to his chest and his arms in front of him with the wire binding his wrists so tightly it was cutting into his flesh and making him bleed, was Bill Cipher - or at least, his body was being possessed by Bill Cipher.

But, unsure of the accuracy of his deduction, Dipper shook his head, still lingering in the doorway with Mabel stood behind him. It didn’t make complete sense. This was a figment of his imagination and Bill was likely to have orchestrated it, but surely he only possessed a body in the real world. Then again, anything could happen in a dream, couldn’t it?  
The sound of the blond’s voice broke Dipper’s trance. “Good to see you again, Pine Tree,” the boy grinned as he shifted his position so that he was kneeling on the floor with his hands - still fastened together at the wrists - in front of his chest. “You too, Star,” he added, nodding in Mabel’s direction. She frowned in response and looked at her brother, whose gaze was firmly fixed on the boy in front of them. “Oh come on, kid, you didn’t really think I wouldn’t turn up around here some time?” the blond scoffed, his remark directed at Dipper.

Trying to appear more confident than he actually felt, Dipper took a few - albeit hesitant - steps forward and approached him without a word, only speaking when he’d reached a point of about a metre away from where he was kneeling. “Explain everything,” he demanded, his shaky voice betraying him. “Explain why you brought us here or…” It was impossible to tell whether he was the only one having the dream or whether Mabel was somehow sharing it with him, so he trailed off and let the blond figure out his question for himself.

The boy’s grin only widened. “I didn’t bring you here, Pine Tree. Look around. Use that brain of yours. I’m injured.” He waved his arms up and down, inviting him to take a closer look at the blood dripping from the cuts in his wrists. “Now why would I do this to myself?”

Dipper had to think for a moment. It was a difficult question to respond to but he was sure he had the answer. “Because pain is hilarious.” Bill had said that once, when he’d been abusing Dipper’s body for the sake of feeling as much agony as possible during the few hours he’d possessed his body for.

But Bill even had an answer for that. “You’re not wrong, kid, but you know what’s not hilarious? Being stuck somewhere you don’t want to be! Being the most powerful entity in the universe and then having all taken away from you and being left with nothing!” Then he suddenly went quiet and dropped his gaze to the floor as if he’d said too much, lowering his hands as well. “I… They took everything from me, Pine Tree. Can’t you see that?”

He could. Everything the blond was saying to him was true - possibly. But he did look weak. He did look vulnerable. Dipper had never seen him in such a state before - aside from the fact that he was possessing a human body that wasn’t his, a body that looked so similar to what he would actually probably look like if he were an actual human that it was difficult to believe he was anything but. His hair was a mess and his face was littered with scars, a small puddle of blood seeping out from under the eyepatch that was strapped around his head. He was still grinning wildly, as Dipper would have expected him to be, but his grin was weak and lacked malice as intense as he was used to.

After exchanging worried glances with Mabel (who had by this point wandered into the room but was still keeping her distance from the demon) he took another cautious step forward, pausing and crouching to the floor. It was even more irritating than he’d predicted, how quickly the demon had managed to get under his skin. Before he knew what he was doing, he leaned forward and began untying the wire around the blond’s wrists. It was only when he’d released his wrists entirely and was examining the wire that he realised just how much blood he was losing. The cuts on his arms were much deeper than he’d first thought they’d be and he looked up to study his face, searching for a sign that he wasn’t enjoying the pain that came with his wounds. He found none.

“Thanks, Pine Tree,” he smirked as they stood up from the floor and turned back to Mabel. “I like you even more now.” He rubbed at the cuts on his wrists as spoke, smearing the blood up both his arms, and then lifted his hand up to his mouth and started licking his fingers, humming in delight at the metallic taste of his blood. Dipper narrowed his eyes in suspicion, sure that he was being played for a fool. If he was so weak and vulnerable, why is it that he was still happy doing sick, twisted things that he knew would only serve to disturb the boy who had just helped him gain a little more power back?

It was Mabel who suggested that, whether Bill was to blame for them being there or not, they carried on exploring their surroundings. The demon agreed her with eagerly - much too eagerly for Dipper’s liking - although her brother was reluctant to dismiss his presence so easily. He was now starting to doubt whether he was actually in a dream - or a nightmare, to be more specific - or whether Bill had brought them to another place, another world, even. And, for that matter, why had both his sister and the blond had their wrists tied together when he hadn’t, and who had tied them up?

From then on, he crept down the hallway even more carefully than he’d been doing, merging in with the shadows in case he ever felt he was in danger. He kept hold of Mabel’s hand throughout, urging her to keep quiet, and some time before they reached the next door Dipper felt something touch his left arm and he stifled a yelp, only to realise a moment later that Bill was the one grabbing at his arm.

This time it was the demon who pressed the button to open the heavy metal door and Dipper would have missed it if he hadn’t opened it. Bill stepped into the cell first, dragging Dipper along with him who in turn pulled Mabel into the room, a scowl on his face as the demon lowered his hand to grab his wrist. While they had each awoken in their respective cells alone, each of Dipper and Mabel’s uncles were slouched in opposite corners of the cell they had only recently discovered, Stan to their left and Ford on their right. They both had their hands tied together and, immediately recognising the demon’s presence, Ford shifted his position and stood up, turning to glare at him.

Ignoring him, Bill turned away from him and gazed down at Dipper instead, nudging him with his elbow. “I say we leave him here. What do you think?”

Without a word, Dipper grimaced and pushed passed him, moving to stand closer to Ford whilst Mabel hurried over to Stan and woke him up before untying the wire around his wrists. Dipper did the same for Ford but instead of responding to him, his uncle did nothing but glare at the blond. “It’s okay,” Mabel called over to him, sensing his suspicion. “It’s just a dream, right Dipper?”

Dipper nodded silently but Ford shook his head in disagreement. “No, it’s not a dream. This is real. This is…” He froze and then fixed his gaze on Bill again. “You did this. Where are we?” He raised his voice in such a way that it resulted in Dipper feeling like he had no choice but to intervene.

Stepping in between his uncle and the blond, he glanced behind him at his sister and Grunkle Stan before taking a deep breath as he prepared to speak up in the demon’s defence (though “defence” may have not been the best word to use, considering that he was still just as suspicious about him as his uncle was, although Ford didn’t have as much information about their situation as he did). “Wait, I don’t think he…” He trailed off as Ford’s gaze softened, their eyes meeting for a moment. “I don’t trust him, but I don’t… Well, I don’t know. He was in no better condition than any of us, so couldn’t we just-”

Mabel cut him off, interrupting him with a quick remark. “Just stop fighting!” Dipper looked across at her and grinned. That’s exactly what he’d meant to say.

In the next cell - which didn’t take them long to find at all - were Wendy and Soos. Wendy had almost chewed through the wire binding her wrists together by the time they got there. But it was what they found in the next room - which was nothing like the others they’d been in - that had all seven of them (including Bill) completely lost for words.

They found themselves in what appeared to be the living room of an old fashioned house. Dark red carpet ran under their feet and the walls were painted cream. There was one very small, very old television set and two cappuccino-coloured sofas were facing it, a small mahogany coffee table in the middle of the room with a notepad and pen lying on top of it. Across the room from them was a sideboard and hanging on the wall above it was a mirror in which they could all see themselves.

Bill was the first to move. He sauntered over to one of the sofas and fell back on it, smirking up at Dipper when he caught his eye. Then everyone else started to move away from the entrance of the living room and wander the building in smaller groups. Mabel and Stan went off together, Wendy and Soos made up another group, and Ford gestured for Dipper to go with him but the blond took it upon himself to interfere.

“Stick with me, kid,” he drawled as shifted in his seat to hang upside down with his legs curling over the back of the sofa and beckoned to him, indicating he should leave Ford to go off on his own and stay with him. In usual circumstances, Dipper would have immediately turned him down and chosen to search the rest of the building - or whatever it really was - with his uncle, but this was different. While he knew he wouldn’t feel safe being alone with Bill, he also thought that leaving him by himself would end in disaster.

He wound up staying but to the blond’s annoyance, Ford stayed as well. The demon sat up properly when Dipper came over and sat next to him, gritting his teeth as Ford pushed him out of the way and sat down between the two of them. With his arms folded across his chest in an angry fashion, he nodded in the direction of the coffee table, leaned forward so that his view of Dipper was no longer obscured by the man in between them, and suggested he took a look at the notepad on the table.

As soon as he did, he wished he hadn’t. It gave them more information than they’d previously had about their predicament, but it was information Dipper wasn’t sure he wanted. His gaze flickered upwards to inspect his uncle’s reaction to the note they hadn’t previously realised was written on the first page of the open notepad but he never got to see it.

Every light in the establishment seemed to go out at once, plunging them all into total darkness. A short, high-pitched scream was heard from one of the other rooms, probably in reaction to the sudden loss of light.

Before Dipper knew what was happening, he was grabbed by an oddly familiar hand and another was placed over his mouth to muffle his cries, not that he was making any noise. The heavy breathing in his ear seemed to get louder when he was dragged away from the sofa and hidden behind the curtain that obscured the window behind the television set and everything grew warmer. Beads of sweat adorned his palms and his heart was working overtime. Fear and anxiety were taking over but then the hand covering his mouth suddenly released its grip on him and he started to relax - slightly.

“Calm down, kid.” He felt a wave of heat engulf the shell of his ear as the demon whispered from behind him, but the realisation that he at least knew the person who’d grabbed him was strangely comforting. “Just stay quiet. I’m trying to save your life, you know, and you’re not making it easy.”

They stayed there on the carpeted floor, behind the curtain, Bill kneeling behind him with an arm snaked around his waist, until eventually a beam of light trickled in from underneath the gap between the floor and the hem of the curtain and the demon pushed the fabric back, revealing a sight that took a while for Dipper to take in. But what bothered him the most was how hard it was going to be for Mabel.


End file.
